


Two Weeks

by PeacefulPhoenix



Category: Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter/Funhaus RPF
Genre: Angst, Established Relationship, FAHC, Fake AH Crew, Female Jack, Hurt/Comfort, I can never decide which to use, M/M, Woo!, also, deafblind character, gta verse, magic!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-06
Updated: 2017-02-06
Packaged: 2018-09-22 08:40:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,250
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9597029
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PeacefulPhoenix/pseuds/PeacefulPhoenix
Summary: Lots of things can go wrong in a heist, especially when you're faced with a crew that's got trained magic users on their side. Michael never expected to be left deaf and blind after a job though. Jack says it's going just going to take about 2 weeks to fix but let's be real, when you're trapped alone with your thoughts, 2 weeks is a long time.





	

Everyone pretty much ignored Jack sulking in the shadows that night. There was booze to drink, laughs to be had, and life to celebrate after all! That life may well be gone tomorrow, after all, they would say on nights such as these. The jobs they pulled were dangerous. People died every day in this line of work, many at their own hands. 

Then again, with the number of near misses they’d made it out of relatively well-off, most of them had begun to believe themselves immortal.

Jack wasn’t one to rain on their parade but she’d never forgotten just how mortal each of them were. And tomorrow’s job was a step too far.

She waited until the festivities had died down to say something. She made her way to Geoff and got a firm grip on his arm, tugging him away from the others. While he didn’t look happy about it the boss followed easily. After all, he knew the look in Jack’s eyes well enough to know he wasn’t getting out of this. 

“Alright what d-”

Jack cut him off before he even had a chance to finish his sentence. “Call it off.”

With a dramatic, drawn out sigh Geoff pinched the bridge of his nose. “We’ve talked about this. I’m not calling it off. Everything’s already in place.” 

“It’s not too late. The job isn’t until tomorrow. You can still do it.” Jack thudded a hand heavily on Geoff’s shoulder, tilting her head to try and catch his eyes. Geoff seemed just as determined to avoid hers. 

Turning away from Jack slightly but not moving her hand, Geoff cast a glance back at the rest of the crew. Michael and Jeremy played darts, trying to one-up each other with each throw by attempting ridiculous stunts. Meanwhile, Gavin and Ryan were perched at the breakfast counter in the kitchen, tossing coins into the air and arguing loudly. It was obvious from here that Gavin was drunk off his ass and having absolutely none of the logic that Ryan was trying to dish out. Ray watched, appearing at first rather uninterested but asking pointed questions every time the argument died down to draw it out even longer and smiling to himself each time they took the bait.

When Geoff finally turned back to look back at Jack his mind was set. “We have no choice. They’re threatening to hurt my crew. My family. I can’t let that stand.” His jaw clenched as he stared down Jack. 

“Geoff, you’ve heard the rumors,” she replied in a much softer tone. It was enough to get the boss to look away. “They have magic on their side. Someone could actually get hurt this time. And I don’t know if there would be anything we could do.”

The boss scoffed and shook his head. “So what if they have magic. So do we! You and Jeremy both know some and Ryan’s started learning. I’m sure we can handle whatever is thrown at us.”

“You know that’s not what I mean. They actually have a professional who’s been doing this for years. Someone who’s been trained and knows exactly how to use it,” Jack shot back. 

Geoff finally brushed the hand from his shoulder. “We’ll be fine. We always are.”

Without another word or glance, Geoff turned and rejoined the rest of the crew, grabbing a whiskey bottle and taking a swig before joining Michael and Jeremy at the dart board. Despite his words of greeting as he reached them sounding care-free, the way he wrapped his arm around Michael’s waist protectively showed he was anything but.

Jack didn’t stay around to watch any more, instead retreating to her room to prepare for the day ahead of them. 

\------------------------------

“Where’s my evac?!” Geoff screeched into the comms, leaning out of cover to take some pot shots at the other crew. Police sirens were getting closer and closer and the rest of their own crew was still nowhere to be found.

A shot pinged off the car Michael and Geoff were crouched behind, ricocheting and shattering a window of a nearby building. Another punched through just an inch from Michael’s shoulder to imbed in the asphalt. Sniper round.

The comms buzzed to life a second later with Ryan’s voice, “Calm down, we’re on our way. Cops have blocked off a lotta streets. We’re trying to find an easy way in. ETA of...” There was a pause as Ryan undoubtedly tried to calculate an exact time. “four minutes? Yeah four sounds about right.” He spoke leisurely as if nothing were the matter and he had all the time in the world, drawing a growl out of Geoff. 

Pausing for a moment before responding, Michael stood and fired off several rounds from his m16, stopping only when the clip was empty. “What do you mean an easy way in? You’re driving an insurgent! Just ram your way in!” he yelled as he reloaded.

Several people leapt forward as the gunfire died down, thinking that perhaps they were out of ammo. They were wrong. They quickly found themselves dead on the pavement, several gunshots each courtesy of Geoff. 

Meanwhile, Ray buzzed in commentary over the comms, tone as dry as ever, “yeah, funny story. Someone crashed the insurgent so we had to improvise.” At least his tone was nonchalant enough that it was clear they were out of danger. 

Didn’t stop Geoff from being pissed though. “You crashed my insurgent?!” he screamed back. 

“You don’t have to yell,” Ryan replied, sounding almost wounded. Michael had finished reloading now and was once again firing on the people dumb enough to lean out of cover. “We were under a lotta heat so I put Gavin on the wheel so I could help Ray take care of it. He’s the one that crashed it.”

Instantly, Gavin was huffing his reply. “What? You’re blaming me? I don’t even have a license. I’m not sure what you were expecting.”

There was a drawn out sigh and then Ray’s voice again, “So anyways, now we’ve got a swat van.”

 

“Who cares! Just ram your way to us! There’s no way we’re making it another four minutes,” Michael called back, digging around in his pockets to try to find more ammo. “Last clip,” he mouthed to Geoff before shoving it into place. 

“Well, it’s only three now.”

Shaking his head to himself, Geoff leaned against the car and refused to answer. They had to figure out how they were going to get through the next three minutes with one clip of machine gun ammo.

“We’re fucked,” he muttered to himself.

Catching him entirely by surprise, Michael grabbed his arm violently and pulling him closer. “Don't you dare give up on me. I'm not done fighting and you better not be either.”

Something about his words sounded final, ominous. And no matter how little faith he had in their own abilities, Geoff knew there was no use fighting with Michael. Especially about something like this. 

He put his own hand atop Michael’s and nodded. “Alright. We keep fighting. We make it through this.”

“And when we do, we throw one huge fucking party,” Michael finished with a wide grin and wild laugh, punctuating the statement with a kiss, rough and quick and gone as soon as it began. 

And just as quickly, their tender moment was interrupted by a loud blast like thunder. Glass windows all up and down the streets erupted into shards, raining down on the street.

“Magic!” Michael yelled, tightening his grip on Geoff’s arm and pulling him up. “Run!” As soon as the boss was on his feet, Michael let go, assuming that he would do what any reasonable person in this situation would and follow his advice.

Instead, when he glanced back again, he found Geoff standing out of cover in the middle of the street, both hands clasping his pistol. 

The world seemed to slow to a standstill as Geoff tried to line up a shot. Another thunderous boom sounded to their left as a light post erupted into sparks. He let off one shot in response and missed. Police cars skidded into the street, nearly hitting Geoff but spinning to avoid him just in time. Another light exploded to their right. Another shot. 

Then everything happened at once. 

Just as Ryan came roaring around a corner in his SWAT van, two minutes ahead of his estimated arrival, a bolt of red magic came streaking towards Geoff. At the same moment, the boss fired a shot that finally hit it’s target, bringing an end to the magical buzz tingling through the air. A mere half second before the spell would have made contact with Geoff, Michael shoved him out of the way and both fell to the ground.

For a brief moment, Michael’s senses were flooded with the sounds of yelling and gunshots and overwhelming, incomprehensible pain. 

Geoff’s face filled his vision, mouthing something Michael couldn't make out over the ringing filling his ears.

And then nothing. 

In the split second before Michael let everything fade, he felt at peace. Wondered if perhaps he’d finally learned what death felt like.

\------------------------------

Geoff paced back and forth outside Michael’s room in the penthouse that served as FAHC headquarters. The sounds of his heels clicking against the hardwood filled the still apartment. Bright colors and flashes of light spilled into the hallway through the cracks around the door, preceded by the quiet mutterings of either Jeremy or Jack. 

Gavin and Ray had disappeared to their respective rooms but Ryan had stayed behind. He leaned against the wall, eyes tracking Geoff. 

The boss cast a glance his way but found any chance of reading his face hindered by that damn mask. “Why aren’t you in there helping?” he finally snapped, tone carrying as much bite as he could manage. 

The vagabond was unaffected. “Because I don’t know enough to help,” he replied cooly. That earned him a growl from Geoff.

Who was he to be so calm at a time like this? “You could’ve at least tried!” 

Ryan pushed off of the wall and all of a sudden he was up in Geoff’s face. Towering over him really. “I would get in the way. Jeremy and Jack know what they’re doing.” When Geoff tried to look away Ryan simply stepped into his vision once again. “Get yourself together.” Ryan placed a heavy hand on Geoff’s shoulder and leaned down slightly. “Your boyfriend will need you when he wakes up.”

He really, really wanted to disagree with him. Mostly because he was being a prick. But he was right. Whatever happened next, Michael would need him. So he’d at least try to be less of a mess.

Besides, really. It would be fine. They’d get this whole magic business sorted out and go back to business and usual just as they had many times before. 

Without really realizing he was doing so, Geoff found himself nodding his head. 

Pulling the mask to the side to reveal his smile, Ryan stood straight again. “Good, so it’s settled. I’ll stand guard here while you go sleep. Soon as anything changes, you’ll know.” Geoff looked sceptical so he shook his head. “Promise.”

No matter how much he wanted to argue, fatigue was really starting to weigh him down so Geoff just nodded again. “Alright. But the second you hear something…” He pointed a finger at Ryan and narrowed his eyes. Though really it mostly looked like his eyes were on their way to sliding shut.

“Yup. The second I hear something. Now go.”

Geoff pat Ryan on the shoulder before slinking away. Ryan leaned against the wall once more, staring at the wall separating him from his injured crew mate. The mask reclaimed it’s normal spot and the smile fell from his lips. 

\------------------------------

There are times in everyone’s lives where things seem to come grinding to a dead stop. Where the world turns upside down. Minutes become days, days become months. Each second feels almost like a dream and at the same time far too real. Uncomfortably real. 

It certainly didn’t help when it was impossible to tell how much time actually had passed.

Michael had been asleep for nearly two full days before he finally woke up. The FAHC’s resident magic users had tried to wake him up with very little success. Jeremy had tapped out after the first day but Jack had continued into the second.

However, when Michael woke up he found himself alone and in the dark. 

The penthouse was silent. The kind of silent that it only got around 5am the night after a heist. No one was moving around. No alarm clocks or sirens were going off yet. No midnight snacks or early breakfast. No “hushed” conversations or repetitive sound effects from video games. 

It was just peaceful.

Well, it was for about 30 seconds until his body seemed to remember all at once that there was a reason he’d been asleep so long. A loud buzzing filled his ears and his head felt as though it was being split with an axe. His arm moved slowly to cradle his head, aching with bruises he didn’t even know he’d gotten. 

So much for his relaxing morning. 

He sat up and pressed the heel of both hands into his eyes. Yeah, he was seriously going to need some advil. Without opening his eyes, Michael slid out of bed and shuffled to the door, across the hall, into the bathroom and back, now carrying the pill bottle. 

There had to be some water on his bedside table right? The crew usually hooked him up like that when stuff like this happened.

Before his hand could make it to the side table something else touched it and he immediately scrambled back further onto the bed. “What the fuck!” He barked into the darkness.

Except that he didn’t. He knew he was talking but couldn’t hear himself saying anything. And another glance around the room revealed a dim, blurry light off to the left. He should’ve been able to see by that. Sure, he wasn’t wearing his glasses or contacts so there was bound to be some blurriness… But he couldn’t see anything. Just blackness and less blackness.

“What the fuck,” he repeated, far more quietly this time, “is going on?”

Once more he didn’t hear himself and got no answer.

Whatever had touched him made contact with his hand again. It was another hand. He turned his palm up, grasping at the mysterious hand like a lifeline. It was smaller than his own, delicate. Long nails dug into his palm and for some reason that was comforting. “Jack?”

The weight on the bed shifted and Michael swept his hand along the sheets until he made contact with a leg. 

The hand he was clasping slowly spread its fingers until his own hand was flat and then another hand came up beneath it. “Yes” was spelled out letter by letter in his palm. 

He breathed a sigh of relief. At least it wasn’t someone who’d broken into the penthouse to kill him! “What happened?” He said, though he was getting less and less confident that his words were actually making it out coherently.

It was like when you had headphones on and knew you were speaking but couldn’t quite make out what you were saying and your voice just came out kinda muddy. Except worse because he couldn’t hear himself at all.

Jack was quick to reply, spelling out “magic” this time. 

“You can fix it right?” The answer came more hesitantly this time, but eventually Jack had spelled out another “yes” followed by “2 weeks.” 

Michael nodded his understanding and she squeezed his shoulder. They both knew this was gonna be far from easy. For everyone. Michael was basically defined by his loud-mouthed, risk-taking ways. Two weeks of laying low without being able to hear or see anything? No binge-watching whatever new Netflix shows there were, no music, hell he wouldn’t even be able to read. Literally the only connection he’d had to the outside world was whatever people scrawled out on his hands? Yeah that was going to go well.

Speaking of, Jack had pressed her finger to Michael’s palm again. This time she wrote out, “Getting Geoff.” Michael nodded and then the contact was gone. 

Which meant he was back in isolation. 

Now, this might have been a tad obvious but it was fucking quiet. He was alone with his thoughts. Something that Michael had spent most of his life avoiding, mind you. 

There had been too many accidents he’d prefer not to think about. Too many heists gone wrong. Sure, it wasn’t always his fault but what if he could’ve done something more? Drive faster, shot better, not set off that goddamn explosion that took Gavin out of the field so long. He wouldn’t’ve had to see his friend bloodied and broken. 

And, yup, there it was. Exactly what Michael had been worried about.

At least one good thing would come from all this mess. While this spell was still in effect at least he’d be out of the field. For the next two weeks, he wouldn’t have to worry about any of this. 

And it was back to silent. Maybe he could sing to himself. 

He got about halfway through Eye of the Tiger before realizing he couldn’t remember any of the words and had just been singing the same verse to himself over and over. 

And then something grabbed his hand and all the noise in his head faded away. He took a second to feel it out, trying to guess who it was. It would’ve been hard if it weren’t for the raised bit of skin just to the side of his thumb. 

Geoff had gotten a tattoo just a week ago. It hadn’t healed all the way yet.

The second Michael had realized who it was, he threw himself forward, arms wrapping around Geoff’s neck. Or, well, he tried. One arm ended up crashing right into his shoulder and the angle was all wrong. No sooner had Michael made contact than they both came crashing back down to the bed. 

“Take care of me,” Michael whined, drawing out the ‘E’. “It’s your fault I’m in this mess so you’re gonna have to pamper me for the next two weeks.” His tone was bright and chipper, smiling and snuggling into Geoff as he spoke as though this were nothing.

From where Michael’s hand still was on Geoff’s chest he could feel vibrations. A laugh probably. The smile already stretching across his face grew wider at that and he offered up his palm for a response. 

Geoff traced out his response, fingers relaxed, spelling out letters lightly and delicately. Almost too light for Michael to make out. “That so?”

“‘Fraid so. You’re in for it now,” came his reply. Then he leaned forward towards where he presume Geoff’s ear might be to whisper out the next sentence. More of a stage whisper really. “Is Jack still here?” Only a ‘Y’ had been traced out before he was speaking again. “Do you think we should try to be gay enough it scares her away?”

Geoff lifted his hand up and delicately placed a kiss to his palm and really that was all the response he needed.

With a whispered goodbye, Jack slipped back out into the hallway. As soon as the door had clicked shut she was besieged by the remaining four crew members.

“Is he going to be alright?” asked Ryan.

Gavin was quick to jump in with his own question. “When can we see him?”

“How’s he doing?” came Ray’s voice, barely audible over the others.

They blabbered on for nearly 30 seconds before Jack stamped her foot to the ground and brought the questions to a halt. Her lips were pressed into a firm line, arms crossed over her chest. She made sure to glare into the eyes of each of the four before pushing through them. “Follow me,” she ordered and so they did.

They resettled in the living room, Jack taking the armchair normally reserved for Geoff while the others attempted to squeeze onto a couch meant for three. Ray ended up perched on the arm. 

Jack cleared her throat and once all eyes were again on her, she began to speak. “Michael is fine. Geoff’s with him now. Whatever spell was cast on him has left him deaf and blind. It was powerful magic but I’m confident we can reverse it in a couple weeks. Until that is possible, however, you can talk to him by writing on his hand. I want someone near him at all times just in case. We all know how Michael does with being told to rest. Understood?”

She got a chorus of “Yes ma’am”s in return and nodded appreciatively. “Oh, and stop looking so damn depressed.” She broke out into a smile as she said it, letting all of her authoritative demeanor slip again. “Geoff and Michael are both joking about it so you can too. Chin up, it’ll be dealt with soon enough.”

The crew visibly relaxed into the couch, Gavin even letting out a sigh of relief. 

Jack stood which they took as a sign that the impromptu meeting had come to a close and Ryan and Ray followed suit. Jeremy and Gavin looked like they were about to have some kind of conversation but Jack cut it short. “Sorry, Lil J, but now that we know what we’re dealing with you and I have some work to do.”

Jeremy gave an exaggerated shrug and sigh, “Apparently duty calls, Gav. We’ll have to pick up this discussion another time.”

As the two walked back to Jack’s room to dig through her spell books she cast a glance at him out of the corner of her eye. “What were you two even talking about this time?”

“Listen, hypothetically… How many rolls of duct tape would it take to string a human up to a wall?”

\------------------------------

Time crawled by for Michael. There was really no difference between night and day now. The light in his room remained on perpetually so he could see the difference in light that meant someone was approaching. Mostly, though, he relied on the vibrations in the floor for that. 

It was surprising how much happened in the world that you didn’t notice when you could see and hear. Sure, you were cut off from most things but there was so much to feel. Subtle shifts in airflow anytime his door was opened, the difference in footsteps of each member of the crew that he could feel through the floorboards, the way everyone’s hands were unique. It was difficult to make it out sometimes, to differentiate. But hey, it meant he didn’t have to stare at the door for hours on end in the hopes that he’d notice before someone touched him because that was exhausting as hell.

It let him do other things with that time at least. Like organize his room. Meticulously. Over and over. He’d ever started a puzzle in the corner. He had no idea what it was but at least it gave him something to do, feeling out each piece to try to find its mates. At the same time it was incredibly, frustratingly slow.

So when Michael felt steps approaching he was more than willing to abandon his project.

Short, heavy footsteps. Which more than likely meant that he was about to get a visit from Jeremy. Excellent! “Lil J!” He called, standing and spinning, arms outstretched. “Come to rescue me from my boredom!”

Skip in his step, he waltzed over to his desk, pulling out the chair and plopping down into it. “So, time to give fixing me another go?” Now that he’d finally stopped moving he held out his hand for Jeremy to scrawl a response.

There was some shuffling and then something heavy being dropped to the floor before Jeremy responded. “Yup. New idea.” No matter how much Michael talked these days responses tended to be pretty short. It took time to spell shit out and, well, he never did have the best memory so long words or sentences got confusing. 

“Alright, let’s do it. Just let me know when.”

He waited patiently for a few minutes before he felt a pat twice on his left arm. Game time.

All out once, light radiated out from the shadow that had been Jeremy. It seemed to move in waves, ebbing and flowing like water but really, it was hard to tell like this. Touches ghosted across his body, bringing with it the tingle of magic radiating through his body from wherever Jeremy touched. 

It continued on and on and Michael began to make out shapes. He still didn’t have color but the light of magic became less obscure. He could see what he believed to be Jeremy’s hands manipulating it and watched almost mesmerized. And then he began to hear something. Words. Jeremy’s chanting. Completely unintelligible but there. 

Michael’s mouth hung open as he drank it all in, breathing in senses he’d so long been deprived of. All previous attempts had been spectacular failures. But this… It seemed like they were onto something. “Jeremy, it’s working,” he whispered, huge grin taking over his face as he heard his own voice again. 

He got a smile and a nod back but Jeremy was too busy casting to reply. And you know what? That was fine because Michael could actually see the nod. He didn’t have to rely on someone relaying it to him because he could see again!

A few more seconds passed and then colors began to fill in. Red then orange then yellow and so on. When he finally reached purple, Michael burst into laughter. “You got you hair Rimmy Tim’d!” It had been red last he’d seen. He’d been talking about doing it for months but never gotten around to it.

And then all at once it was gone. 

There was no fade back into nothingness. All it took was a blink of the eye and Michael was once again plunged into silence and blackness.

A hand rose to his eyes, checking that they were indeed still open. “Jeremy?” he called though for a moment he wondered if perhaps he’d only thought it. “What happened?”

A hand grabbed his own, flipping it palm up and slowly scrawling letters. “I’m sorry.”

\------------------------------

The problem, they quickly realized, was the nothing was sustainable. Jack and Jeremy had been working day and night, looking through all the spellbooks they had then hunting for more when they failed to find answers in their own. 

Some spells seemed to work at first only for them to quickly realized that for the effect to remain, they would need to continue casting which was, of course, not an option. And no matter how much they didn’t want to admit it, the end of the second week was coming up and they were no closer to an answer. 

Jack’s room had become their base of operations, any semblance of order long since thrown out the window. Papers were absolutely everywhere and dirty dishes were beginning to pile up rather high in the corner.

Ray didn’t seem to mind adding to that pile. “So I heard about this awesome new thing scientists just discovered,” he began as he walked in, putting a mug of coffee in front of each of them. “It’s called sleep. They’re saying humans need it to survive so I was like, fuck it, and gave it a shot, right? Turns out it’s pretty damn great.” He pulled up a chair, leaning back and sipping on a coffee of his own. “You two should really partake sometime.”

“The real joke there is the part where you said you slept,” Jeremy replied without looking up from his notes. 

For a second Ray looked like he was going to get offended but then he just chuckled and shrugged his shoulders. “Yeah no, you got me there.”

Jack actually took a moment to sit up, cradling the coffee between her hands and blowing on it before taking a sip. “We’ll sleep soon, I promise. Though, maybe we won’t be able to now,” she said, giving a pointed look at the drink then at Ray. 

“Hey I didn’t make you drink it,” he replied quickly, hands flying up in surrender. 

She put it down then ran both hands over her face with a groan. “It feels like we’re so close to cracking this but it’s just not-” She groaned and tipped her head back so she was talking at the ceiling. “Bits and pieces of about seven different spells have had some sort of effect but something’s off about it.”

“Off like your spells are wrong or off like someone made their own frankenstein spell?” Ray asked, leaning forward so his forearms rested on his legs. 

Time seemed to freeze and Ray wondered for a second if that was the weed or if everyone had just suddenly stopped. Okay cool everyone had stopped, it wasn’t just him. Jeremy and Jack were staring at each other with wide eyes and open mouths. “So I’m just gonna go out on a limb here and say that I’m actually the smartest person in the crew for figuring that out. All in agreement? Awesome.”

It was a couple more seconds before they pulled themselves together enough to answer. “Yeah that’s actually… That would make a lot of sense,” Jeremy admitted.

“I can’t believe we didn’t think of that. If we find the person who cast the spell originally chances are pretty good they’d also know how to reverse it,” Jack followed up immediately.

“Yeah what dumb ass would use a spell they didn’t know how to reverse,” Ray muttered into his coffee. He may or may not be once such dumbass and he may or may not also be banned by Geoff from practicing magic anymore.

Suddenly he stuck his finger in the air and his head snapped up. “Oh, right!” Ray blurted out. “We may have a slight problem.” Jeremy swept out his hand, a clear indication to continue and Ray nodded. “Right, right, right. So, here’s the thing. Geoff kinda shot the guy. Who cast the spell…”

The tone in the room immediately shifted and Jack caught Jeremy’s eye out of the corner of her own. “Oh shit,” she muttered.

\------------------------------

For three days they’d carried on like nothing was wrong. It was easier to pretend. To go in and reassure Michael that they were getting closer to a cure every day. But they weren’t. They’d all but stopped looking into it.

And Geoff knew they couldn’t keep it up. And he also knew that telling him would be the hardest thing in his life. Ryan had offered to but Geoff felt like this was something he had to do. He loved Michael and well, this was his fault after all. Michael had taken that spell for him and then Geoff’d had to go and fuck it all up by killing the only person who could reverse it. 

Slowly he trudged to Michael’s room, nodding a half-hearted greeting at Gavin. If this was gonna be- since this was going to be a long term thing they would need to devise a better system then having someone on watch all the time. Add that to the growing to-do list they had running. 

Gavin glanced up from his phone, putting it away entirely when he saw Geoff’s face and reached out to give his arm a squeeze. “It’ll be fine. Michael boi’s tough.” It wasn’t entirely clear from his tone whether he was trying to convince Geoff or himself but either way, he appreciated the sentiment.

“That he is. Doesn’t mean he’ll be happy about it though,” Geoff mused with a bit of a laugh, sticking a hand in his pocket and idling in front of the door. He wasn’t ready to go in yet.

For several minutes he stood there, trying to build up the mental fortitude. Then again it didn’t seem like he was going to be able to get much more than he already had.

Sucking in one last breath, Geoff opened the door and walked in. 

Michael was sleeping, tangled in a mess of blankets and clothes and lying horizontally across it. He should just turn and leave.

He took a seat on the bed near Michael’s feet. The shift seemed to stir him some but it was the hand Geoff placed on his leg that actually woke him up. He mumbled something, fists digging into his eyes, though it was impossible to make out. 

His speech had gotten worse and worse over the past couple weeks and while it was understandable most of the time, it got pretty rugged when he was sleepy. 

Using his free hand to brush some curls back, Geoff leaned in to place a kiss on Michael’s forehead. He practically purred in response, mumbling out something that was almost certainly meant to be his name. 

Without another word he started reaching out blindly until he found Geoff’s shoulders and pulled him down and snuggled into his back. “What you want?”

Geoff took his hand gently, just holding it for a while instead of responding. It was too good a moment to rush. Eventually he got an elbow to the back that was a very clear message of Michael’s thoughts on that particular topic.

“I’m sorry,” he wrote out first. Michael whispered the words as he figured them out and when he’d reciting the message his eyebrows pulled together.

His hand tensed as if he was going to pull it away but then he relaxed again. “Geoff, what’s wrong? What happened?”

“No cure.” His hands shook as he scrawled it out and he couldn’t bring himself to lift it off once he was done so he just rested his palm against Michael’s and laced their fingers together. 

The room fell silent for at least 10 minutes. Several times, it seemed like Michael would talk only to close his mouth without speaking again. At some point, Geoff became vaguely aware of how tightly Michael’s arm was wrapped around his waist. 

He’d been expecting screaming honestly. Things should’ve been flying across the room and shattering on the walls. Tears should’ve been streaming down his cheeks. This silence was even more terrifying than any of that would’ve been. Hell, it would’ve even been better if he’d been yelling that this was all Geoff’s fault and he never wanted to see him again. 

Finally Michael croaked out, “laptop.” Within seconds, Geoff had one in front of him and open to Word. It took Michael a second to feel out the keyboard and then his fingers were sailing across the keys like he could see them, even backspacing the second he made a mistake. The wonders of touch-typing.

A million questions filled the screen. “What happened to all the progress Jeremy was making? I could see, Geoff. He’d do his magic or whatever bullshit and then I could see and hear for a minute. How can all of that not matter? What do you mean there’s no cure? What happens to me now? I’m just stuck in this hell forever?” Tears were falling from Michael’s eyes now and dripping onto the keys but he kept going without slowing. “I only ever get sentence fragments scrawled out on my hand? The only complete sentences I hear now are my own god damn mind! And who needs a demolitions expert who can’t see or hear? I’m useless to you guys now. I’m useless to you. Why would you stay with me after this? Why did this happen? Why did-”

It’s then that Michael stops typing, instead curling in on himself and shaking like he was trying to hold back sobs. He never was really good at crying in front of people.

Geoff scooted closer, wrapping his arms around Michael and riding out the worst of it without trying to respond. 

When Michael was ready he put out his palm again and Geoff took it, scrawling out his answer to what he thought was the most important question of the lot. “I’m never leaving.” As soon as he was done writing he dug out something from his pocket and placed it in the center of Michael’s hand. 

As soon as his fingers curled around it, it was clear to Michael it was a ring. “What? Geoff, is this…”

Geoff grabbed his other hand this time. “A promise. That you’ll always have a place by my side.” It took a while to scrawl out the sentence but if ever there was an occasion to… “We’ll learn tactile sign language so we can talk. Rest of the crew has been doing research. We’ll be okay.”

“Forever’s a long time,” he muttered, turning the ring over in his fingers.

Geoff nuzzled into his shoulder. “Not long enough to spend with you.”

Michael laughed, sounding rough from the tears. “That was pretty gay. But nice.” He slipped the ring on the nestled back into Geoff. “Think I can get one of those canes for blind people but like made out of solid gold and it’s also a gun or something? Oo, or maybe it could turn into nunchucks!”

“I’ll have Ryan get right on that.”

**Author's Note:**

> Shout out to the person who commissioned me to write this! It was something I'd never done before and I had a lot of fun with it. Kudos and comments make my day so if you enjoyed, consider leaving one or both <3


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